The ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) is working on a proposal to overhaul the PM Internship Scheme (PMIS) to widen the participation of job seekers in the scheme and make a higher number of companies offer training to them.
According to officials, the stipend from Rs 5,000 per month being offered to the interns currently may be raised to about Rs 11,800 from March 2026. The low stipend has remained a major reason for the weak participation and high dropout rates in the first two phases of PMIS that began in October 2024.
“Under the revised scheme, the government aims to link the PMIS stipend with the stipend offered in the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) with a slight variation so that these schemes don’t cannibalise each other. The new stipend takes into account the higher cost of living in metros and tier-I cities,” the official said.
Proposal to scale up participating companies
Further, there’s a proposal to scale up the participating companies to 6,000 from the current 549. PMIS targets top 500 companies based on their average corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending over the past three years. Besides, 49 additional companies from tourism, hospitality and healthcare sector have been added in the first two phases.
“The third phase of the scheme would include all companies empanelled under MCA for CSR activities, companies from high-growth and emerging sectors, and top 2,000 firms listed on the NSE and BSE,” the official said.
The changes to PMIs may be announced in the forthcoming Budget.
The official said that the plans are afoot to expand the age eligibility for the scheme to 18-30 years to include a wider segment of the youth population, particularly candidates from polytechnics, diploma courses and ITIs. The scheme currently targets youth aged 21-24 years.
“There are other proposals as well, including reducing the internship timeline in certain sectors where the job roles do not require 12 months of training, and introducing a hybrid work model that will allow interns to tackle commuting issues,” the official said.
20% dropout rate in PMIS
Last month, the government flagged a 20% dropout rate in PMIS primarily due to the location constraints and longer duration of the internships. In a Lok Sabha reply, the ministry said that in two rounds of the pilot projects, 6,618 interns left their respective companies without completing the 12-month internships. As such the scheme is witnessing a low acceptance rate. As against the 125,000 target set for FY25, just 33,000 candidates have been accepted by roles thus far.
Experts said that the participation in the second phase, which began in 2025, is better than the pilot phase due to tweaks by the ministry which necessitated participating companies to give out exact internship locations, along with geo-tagging of the opportunities on the dedicated portal so that the applicants could apply for internships based on their location preferences.
Announced in the Budget 2024-25, PMIS aims to provide internship opportunities to 10 million people over five years offering them a monthly stipend of Rs 5,000. The PMIS is designed to enhance industry-relevant skills, improve job readiness, and foster professional exposure through structured internships in India’s top-performing companies and institutions to create a job-ready, skilled workforce.